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This is one of those all-important classic recipes, as roast chicken is so tasty and so versatile. You can have it with a lovely colourful salad, as part of a buffet, in some crusty rolls for your pack-up, or even as the main on an oriental or Indian dish. I would however suggest you use this recipe for a great Sunday roast dinner. Whack on some crispy roast spuds, some stick honey parsnips snips, creamy bread sauce, tasty sage stuffing and fresh greens and there is nothing more satisfying in the World! I come from a family that love roast chicken so much we even have it on Christmas day instead of turkey (along with sausages and bacon and all the other usual trimmings). I also have the perfect boyfriend to share roast chicken with, as I love the breast meat but he is a leg man. It’s great; it even saves time on some carving as he’ll just have the whole leg on his plate.

– 1.5 kilo chicken

– 1 carrot – roughly chopped

– 1 leek – roughly chopped

– 1 large red onion – chopped into quarters

– 1 glove garlic

– 1 lemon – halved

– 1 glass sherry

– 1 sherry glass water

– Bunch thyme

– Olive oil

– Salt and pepper

Oven to 200’C

Place the carrots, leeks, onion and half the garlic glove on the bottom on a roasting dish

Pour over the sherry and the water

Peel the lemon rind with a veg peeler and put half of that in the roasting tray.

Sit the chicken on top of the veg and then stuff the inside carcass of the chicken with the rest of the garlic and 2/3 of the thyme.

Squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken and then put the rest of the lemon inside the chicken

Rub the salt and pepper into the chicken skin, drizzle with olive oil and rub again.

Place the lemon rind on top of the skin, along with the rest of the thyme and cover with foil.

Place in the oven and cook for 1 hour

Remove, the foil, baste the chicken with the juices and put back in the oven (uncovered) for another 25-30 minutes, basting again half way though